


a short contemplation

by potofsoup



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Inspired by The Accidental Warlord and His Pack Series - inexplicifics, and some Bear school, featuring a human warrior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26683366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potofsoup/pseuds/potofsoup
Summary: Aleksander finds out about Witchers and their ability to transfer healing and good health to their lovers.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 344
Collections: Inspired by inexplicific Accidental Warlord AU





	a short contemplation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inexplicifics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Your Faults Had Made Me Love You More](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23685499) by [inexplicifics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/pseuds/inexplicifics). 



It started with Zofia, Aleksander thought. He came to pledge himself to the Wolf a few months after Zofia, and they were, for a while, the only two human warriors in the keep, so he'd always measured himself against her on the training grounds. Which was why he noticed that while his mace grew increasingly heavy in his hands, she was as light-footed as ever. It’s been over 10 years, and while he certainly looked and felt 43, Zofia somehow looked not a day over 30. For a while he'd attributed that to diet, or training regimen, or Zofia's natural health, but when her leg had healed in the space of the Kovir mess, he figured something else was going on. Broken legs just didn't heal that fast for a human. 

Aleksander didn't speak much, but he was no idiot. Now that he knew to look, the pattern was clear with a quick glance around the dinner tables and doing a mental tally of all the human warriors leaning against their Witcher partners. A short chat with Zofia during the afternoon sparring session confirmed it: having a Witcher as a lover extended your life.

Well that fact was sure going to cause a ruckus when the Witchers figure it out. Aleksander's not about to poke the beehive himself, but the ramifications bore thinking about. Should he take a Witcher lover, to stay strong and heal faster? What about the seamstress who always seemed a bit sickly? And what would the hypothetical Witcher lover think, to know that they're wanted for *those* reasons? It's all a mess, and not one that seemed to have easy answers.

Some of his thoughts must have leaked into his smell, because at supper, Junod caught his eye and raised an eyebrow. He responded with a shrug of "I'm dealing with it," and Junod nodded and turned back to his meal. Around him, he saw tension ease from several of his other Bear brethren, and was filled with a profound sense of fondness. He knew the other schools didn't quite understand the Bears, but it's always made sense to him: leave well enough alone, and trust that your brothers will ask for help when needed, and will share when they feel ready. He didn't need to express things by playing, like the Cats, or by flowery words, like the Griffins. He just needed to be and let be. It's not emotional repression like the others schools seem to think -- he just knows his business, is all.

After supper, Aleksander went down to sit with Alicja in the courtyard, helping her fold the day's laundry in the darkening twilight. Hands occupied with the familiar task and with Alicja's solid and familiar presence beside him, the problem seemed much less thorny. 

The thing was, he didn't particularly want to live as long as a Witcher. He'd always planned on fighting a few more years, and when he got slow enough to be a liability on the battlefield, he'd always figured he'd retire, maybe talk to Jan about getting assigned to minding the stables. He liked what he had with Alicja -- neither of them wanted children, and both of them were just happy for some quiet companionship in the second half of their lives. He thought, vaguely, that she was an alderman's wife, once, but that mattered as little as the fact that he used to be a farmer-turned-brigand, except that she could read and he couldn't. He wanted to grow old with her, in the peace Kaer Morhen after a long life of war. He wanted to see his end in thirty years and not in three hundred. He could see why those who had taken on Witchers as lovers would want to live longer, but he was fine as-is.

They finished the folding and as Aleksander helped her carry it in, Alicja put her hand on his arm and asked, "You worked it out?" He nodded, happy to be known like this. "Yeah. Read something tonight?" She smiled, and they headed to the library to find a book. Leave the drama of a long life to the Witchers and mages. He just wanted to be and let be.

**Author's Note:**

> help I think I might care about the Witcher now? But only in these really weird ways?
> 
> (actually tho I'm pecking away at a Cap fic, just slowly. Apparently one can love two things, like Sam love Steve and Bucky, or like Geralt loves Eskel and Jaskier)


End file.
